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Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe
| birth_place = | death_date = June | death_place = | nationality = English | party = Liberal Party (UK) | alma_mater = Trinity College, Cambridge | spouse = (1) Sibyl Graham (d. 1887) (2) Lady Margaret Primrose }} Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe KG, PC (12 January 1858 – 20 June 1945), known as The Lord Houghton from 1885 to 1895 and as The Earl of Crewe from 1895 to 1911, was a British statesman and writer. Life Youth and education Crewe-Milnes was the son of Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton by his wife the Hon. Annabella, daughter of John Crewe, 2nd Baron Crewe, and was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge. Political career A Liberal in politics, Crewe became private secretary to Lord Granville when Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (1883–84), and in 1886 was made a Lord-in-Waiting]]. In the Liberal administration of 1892–1895 he was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland]], with John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn, as Chief Secretary for Ireland. In 1894, Crewe-Milnes succeeded to the estates of his uncle, Hungerford Crewe, 3rd Baron Crewe, and assumed the same year the additional surname of Crewe by Royal license. In 1895 he was created Earl of Crewe, in the County Palatine of Chester. From 1905 to 1908 he was Lord President of the Council in the Liberal government; in 1908, in H.H. Asquith's cabinet, he became Secretary of State for the Colonies (1910–15) and Liberal leader in the House of Lords. In this latter role, he played a key part in bringing the Parliament Act 1911 (depriving the Lords of its veto) to the statute book. Asquith valued him highly as a colleague, for his commonsense and sound judgment rather than any exceptional brilliance. His colonial responsibilities included terms as Secretary of State for India (1910–11 and 1911–15). Crewe served as Lord President of the Council again in 1915–16. He maintained a leading role in the education sector, serving as Chairman of the Governing Body of Imperial College London (1907–22), President of the Board of Education (1916) and Chancellor of Sheffield University. He was also chairman of London County Council]] in 1917. He was later Ambassador to France (1922–28), and Secretary of State for War in 1931. As Ambassador to France he launched a fund for the creation of a British Institute in Paris which has since developed into the University of London Institute in Paris (ULIP). Literary work Crewe inherited his father's literary tastes, and published Stray Verses in 1890, besides other miscellaneous literary work, including Gleanings from Béranger (privately printed in 1889). He also wrote a biography on his father-in-law, Lord Rosebery, published in 1931. A war poem, "A Harrow Grave in Flanders]] — which touches on the theme of "what might have been" — was published in several anthologies during and following World War I.New York Libraries (Feb 1919) p. 161 Family Crewe married firstly Sibyl Marcia Graham (1857–1887), daughter of Sir Frederick Graham, 3rd Baronet of Netherby, in 1880. They had three daughters and one son, who died as a child: * Lady Annabel Crewe-Milnes (1881–1948). In 1903 she married Arthur O'Neill (1876–1914), later Ulster Unionist MP for Mid Antrim. Their third son, Terence O'Neill, served as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. The writer Quentin Crewe was her son by her second marriage.http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-quentin-crewe-1185256.html * Hon. Richard Charles Rodes Milnes (1882–1890). * Lady Celia Hermione Crewe-Milnes (1884–1985). She married Sir Edward Clive Milnes-Coates, 2nd Baronet. * Lady Helen Cynthia Crewe-Milnes (1884–1968). Twin of Celia Hermione. She married the Hon. George Charles Colville (1867–1943) and was mother of the Cabinet Secretary Sir John Colville. In 1899, more than a decade after his first wife's death, Crewe married again to the eighteen-year-old Lady Margaret Etienne Hannah (Peggy) Primrose, daughter of the 5th Earl of Rosebery. They had two children: * Richard George Archibald John Lucian Hungerford Crewe-Milnes, Earl of Madeley (1911–1922), * Lady Mary Evelyn Hungerford Crewe-Milnes (1915–), first wife of the 9th Duke of Roxburghe. Lord Crewe died in June 1945, aged 87. As he had no surviving male heir his titles became extinct. Trivia His father-in-law, Lord Rosebery, had been Liberal Leader six years before he himself became Leader in the House of Lords of that party. Rosebery thought Crewe a reliable politician but a poor speaker. When it was announced to him that his daughter, the Marchioness of Crewe, was in labour, Rosebery quipped, "I hope that her delivery is not as slow as Crewe's".Leo McKinstry, Rosebery; Statesman in Turmoil Recognition He was further honoured in 1911 when he was created Earl of Madeley, in the County of Stafford, and Marquess of Crewe. Publications Poetry *''Stray Verses, 1889-1890. London: John Murray, 1891. Non-fiction *''National Education. London: Liberal Publication Dept., 1913. *''War and English Poetry. Oxford, UK: |printed by F. Hall at the University Press, 1917. *Report of the Committee appointed by the Prime Minister to inquire into the position of classics in the educational system of the United Kingdom.'' London: printed by Eyre and Spottiswoode for H.M. Stationery Office, 1921. *''Lord Rosebery''. London: John Murray, 1931; New York: Harper & Bros., 1931. *''Liberal Plan for Peace''. London: Victor Gollancz, 1944. Translated *Pierre-Jean de Béranger, Gleanings from Béranger. London: privately printed, 1889. Edited *''Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom: New Series. Volume 22''. London: Humphrey Milford / Oxford University Press, 1945. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Robert Crewe-Milnes, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Oct. 4, 2013. See also *List of British poets References * James Pope Hennessy, Lord Crewe, 1858-1945. The Likeness of a Liberal. London: Constable, 1955. * Ian Packer, "The Earl of Crewe" in Dictionary of Liberal Biography (edited by Breck et al), Politico's, 1998, pp87–88 Notes External links ;About *"Milnes, Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. *[http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/20th-june-1891/18/lord-houghtons-stray-verses Lord Houghton's Stray Verses] reviewed in The Spectator. 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